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I realize that some of you don't want to talk about this. I get it. Best to just stop reading now in that case, although I doubt you'll find what I have to say objectionable.

The Guardian recently ran an article interviewing mostly black (but also one chicano and one latino) Burners. It was a mildly interesting article, but I don't feel like I learned much from it and may not have paid attention to it had a few of the interviewees not been from from Que Viva camp, which grew out of a camp I was part of in 2011 and 2012 (and which I previously talked about here in regards go their Project Radical Inclusion). Still, I did read it and had a few thoughts, none of which are original I'm sure.

Long-time Burner Tony Edwards and a friend. Photo: Matt Mihály.

Let's get this party started with a slide from Burning Man's "census" data for 2014. I put census in quotes because, as they readily admit, it's a survey whose results are extrapolated to the whole population, rather than a true census where every single participant is individually counted. It's probably not perfectly accurate, but I think it's likely good enough in terms of broad strokes to serve as a factual basis for discussion. (I'll note that I'm going to try to sidestep the fact that latino/hispanic people can be of any race when it comes to the US census, and consider only non-white latino/hispanics for the purpose of latino/hispanic.)

So, as expected, what we see is non-latino white people over-represented compared to the US population's demographics (84% of 2014 Burning Man attendees were US residents) and even more so compared to the global population. Non-white hispanics (about 18% of the US population) are heavily under-represented and blacks (~12.8% of the US population) are yet more underrepresented.

One interesting thing I find perpetually missing from this 'debate' about racial diversity at Burning Man is people of Asian descent. They are unquestionably a minority in the US (~4.5% of the population) but the discussion around Burning Man never seems to mention them or credit the fact that there are a fair number of Asian minorities at Burning Man. In fact, according to this census, they are slightly over-represented vs. the US population. If you're looking to attack Burning Man because all minorities aren't equally represented, at least acknowledge that just as there are minority groups who don't attend Burning Man very heavily, there are others who do.

In any case, I'm firmly on the 'side' that says that the lack of representation certain minority groups have at Burning Man is not an indictment of the event.

​There are probably a number of reasons for some minority groups not coming to BM, including in no particular order:

Cost. Blacks and latinos are less well-off as a whole than white and asian people in the US. Taking off and getting to the BRC to spend a week there is a luxury that only people with lots of money and/or free time (it's possible to go to Burning Man very cheaply if you volunteer and get a free ticket) can indulge in. For most people, going to Burning Man ends up being very expensive. I don't see any reason to be concerned about this vis a vis race though, unless we're also going to fret that poorer people can't take trips to Bali or Paris as easily either. I mean, yes, income inequality is fret-worthy but I don't think there's anything about Burning Man that is any different from the rest of the world in that sense.

Camping. Pick 10 camp grounds at random in the US. Go visit them and tell me what races you mostly see camping there and which you don't. Larry Harvey may have said it awkwardly, but there's nothing wrong with the idea that certain cultures like certain activities more than others.

Group identity. Like it or not, there is a lot of racial clumping in terms of social groups in this country. A lot of white people hang out mainly with white people, a lot of black people hang out mainly with black people, a lot of latinos hang out mainly with other latinos and speak mainly spanish in their communities, etc. I'm not making any justifications or excuses for doing that, nor am I even expressing an opinion about whether it's a good thing or not. But it is a thing, and if you're, say, a black person who prefers the company of other black people, I get how you might look at the sea of often-privileged white people at Burning Man and think, "Not for me." Maybe at a certain point there'll be a critical mass and suddenly someone who previously didn't think it was for them might look at videos of the event and decide that there are enough people like them that they'll feel comfortable there.

Cultural origins. The founders of Burning Man were all white. The original attendees of Burning Man were pretty much all white. If Burning Man had been founded by a group of black people and was primarily black people for the first few years, I suspect the racial composition of Burning Man would look a lot different today than it does. Origins matter, particularly in light of the aforementioned racial clumping in social groups.

That's it. Nothing earthshattering in this post, because I don't think there's much to talk about. I don't think it's any surprise that different events and activities tend to appeal, for a variety of reasons, to different races (especially where culture and race are somewhat tightly tied together like with many minority groups in America). Is skiing somehow racist because it's mostly white?

What is a shame is anyone believing that any race is going to be less than welcome at Burning Man. Racism is alive and well in America, but either people who are less racist than most go to Burning Man (I want to say that's likely, but that would be effectively patting myself on the back, so is a notion to be treated with suspicion) or the culture of the place just encourages people not to express it. Maybe both.

I think it's the friendliest place on Earth, and while I'm a white man and so have no direct experience with what minorities deal with in America or on the playa, I just don't see the kind of attitudes I see off-the-playa towards different racial groups displayed out there. If nothing else, Burning Man is the type of place to make the closed-minded really uncomfortable, so they likely tend to stay away.

I'm sure other people have different perspectives informed by their experiences on the playa. Would love to hear them in the comments!

You're right. Absolutely right. Of my black or hispanic friends, exactly *zero* of them have expressed any interest in going to Burning Man whatsoever. They simply don't see the appeal of it. They think I'm crazy for camping in the desert. A couple of them might give a regional a try, but as far as traveling to Nevada? Nope.

Also, the heart & soul of Burning Man is right across the bay from one of the biggest black populations in the state of California. I don't see a whole lot of outreach to the black community in their own backyard.

This world we live in really does hold different kind of race, culture, belief, and trait from the different places, but despite of that, we really all are human, equally made, and living in the earth humans. The more reason that I encourage unity from everyone, because if we are going to just fight over something, then we will just be killing and finishing our own race. Respect and love is all that it is going to take for us to get peace, but many people incorporate it into wars, which is wrong. Trying to get peace out of force is not going to work at any point, peace out of fear, maybe, but total peace can only be achieved with unity, love, and respect.

Reply

Rohan

9/28/2015 11:40:46 pm

I liked the post about it, but if you want to hear more about the voices of minorities (in this case black) this post is just those:

I think the conversation is noting, but like you said its not earth shattering. And yes, the points you made are very valid indeed. I have the same experience with running a TEDx event, which has gotten a global push over the past few years, but many of my black friends are now coming on board while I've been running it for over 7 years. Its no fault of anyone about who attends. Those that know go, those that don't know, don't go. Applies to a lot of things...

I had a great experience as a new burner in 2015, and plan on bringing more people, involving my friends and community for years to come. And I'm a happy African-American to boot!

Reply

Dr. Yes

9/30/2015 03:31:18 pm

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you had a good time in 2015 too. :) See you out there next year!

Reply

Everett Alexander

9/30/2015 03:21:46 pm

*worth noting or worth having

Reply

Ina

10/1/2015 10:23:48 am

in 2007, after my tent had blown down for the 6th time, my flip-american camp buddies and i were sitting in the tent, trying to escape from the heat, tent decimated with dust, having just survived another dust storm, sitting on the cooler and the floor of the dusty tent, eating some food, drinking water; we talked about how ironic it is that some people in the world actually live something close to this (tents on the side of EDSA in Manila), and that we'd paid hundreds of dollars to have this experience. BM is more than just "camping." There is something illogical about this kind of confrontational experience and what is called, "radical inclusion." I'd like to hear others' thoughts on this temporary discomfort... when essentially, attendees are coming from a place of privilege.

Reply

Laine Trzinski aka SonnyFlowers

10/10/2015 02:22:04 pm

I had read that Guardian article the day it came out. Mildly interesting, I agree, but brought up ideas I think about every year I attend the burn. Racial diversity is something I work hard at in bringing non-whites home to the playa. My/Our camp this year was 109 strong. From what I recall it's a bit like this:

asain~12
black ~2
black/white~4 (one of each parent)
creole~1 (when I ask him his race, this is what he says)
white~ all the rest

interesting, huh?

An article I'd love to see written is about the numbers of former or still serving military people that attend the burn. I run into many every year and our camp has at least 8, both serving and inactive. With the levels of suicide and PTSD among our soldiers, BRC is a perfect place to "re-program". (my opinion)

I am said "friend" in the above photo.

fuck your burn...

Reply

Dr. Yes

10/11/2015 09:23:51 pm

Hah, awesome that you saw this article Laine!

Good question re: how many vets attend. Why do you think it's a good place to re-program? The accepting nature people tend to show while out there?

Reply

karen panardo

10/16/2015 06:01:49 am

hola people. i started going to BRC from Argentina since 2007. i love the census idea, i`ve meet lot of people from all the world, really very few from Africa, but lots of asian and european people. i think Argentinian are becomen a hudge comunity there. but i`ve never understand your clasification of hispanic people. do that means for you people from Spain? people who speaks spanish? who do you know who speaks spanish? most of us speak at least 2 or 3 languages, if you ask in english we are going to answer in english too. most of us are not natives, the same as yourselves, most of us came from europe, and we all have latin, celtic or asian roots...dificult to get a definition

Reply

Dr. Yes

10/16/2015 08:19:59 am

Yeah, classifying people as hispanic is super confusing. I used the definition from the US census, which counts non-white hispanic people only....though I still find that a little confusing for all the reasons you list.

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